Chapter 8 – Messages Away from Mecchen House

Of course, the next question was “when were they checked out?” The lender’s information said three days ago. The books had been checked out only this one time. They’d first been stocked by the library early last August. Three of the publishing dates were thirty years ago. The other two were brand-new, just published when they were stocked. No publisher given. Edited by Chosha Ikamono. This guy sure wrote a lot. His name was on all five of the books.

As the librarian moved back to close the window on the screen, I asked her about the author. She looked at me with those lime eyes of hers as though I’d asked her for the color of the sky. When my confusion remained, she told me, “It’s a pseudonym. It means ‘fake author’. That could mean they’re all by the same person. Or it could be a group of people who don’t want to be known for writing those books.”

Nathan put a hand to the side of his face. “I don’t get it. What does this mean?”

Jamie shook his head. “It doesn’t mean anything. Remember, Nana just said she doesn’t have the books. She could’ve just been obtuse about meaning Ms. Ishida rented them for her or something.”

That was surprisingly sensible for Jamie. I posed another possibility. “Or Ms. Ishida rented the books, used them somehow, and could’ve been the one to will us here.”

The librarian gave me a look. Jamie waved his hand. “She would’ve brought it up… And remember what Nana said about accidents? No. It was a deliberate act. Besides, it’s just been loaned out this once.”

He sure had a lot of faith in Ms. Ishida. But then so did I. I reminded him, “You know you can read a book without checking it out of a library. Also, there are likely other libraries, bookstores, etc.”

Jamie curled his lip-line up in irritation. “So, in conclusion, this means absolutely nothing. All it means is we have to look somewhere else. Is there another library nearby?” He turned to the librarian.

She already had her book open again but was paying more attention to us. With a quick cough, she said, “Two on the other side of the river. It’s around a thirty-minute trip by train…”

Jamie nodded. “Good, then we have a destination.”

But the librarian continued, “I wouldn’t bother going though. Neither of them have those books. They’re smaller and less diverse. I wouldn’t bother with bookstores either. Half of the books are out of print.”

Lines curled above Jamie’s eyes. “How exactly do you know all this?”

“I’m a very dedicated librarian… I pride myself on our acquisitions.” Her voice was level and quiet, yet seemed to waver as she spoke.

That gave me an idea. “Did you happen to read these particular works?”

She turned the page. “Not yet, I’m sorry to say. At least I don’t remember them.”

So, it seemed we were left with only one direction, back to Mecchen House. Jamie wasn’t willing to concede that yet. “We’d just be moving backwards. Besides, we’re not entirely sure why the… changes are occurring. What if it was because of the time we spent in there?”

I shrugged. “And what if it was the result of leaving?”

Jamie chewed on that, then tossed up his hands. “Whatever. We could go on like this all day. Personally, I still think Nana is responsible. So long as we put as much distance between her and us, we’ll be fine.”

Nathan steeled his face. “Please ease off Nana. As she said, she just wants to help us. I don’t feel she’d do anything to hurt us.”

Jamie glanced through the doors at the front. “She’s too suspicious. How am I supposed to know that her version of ‘helping’ will actually be beneficial to me? Besides, if we let Nana off the hook, then who is the prime suspect for bringing us to this world?”

The librarian’s eyes opened wider. Nathan rubbed his neck. “It could be me. I mean I saw that place before we wound up here. Maybe something unconscious… happened. I don’t know.”

It sounded possible. I’d never heard of an anime store in our area, and I’d be the first to know. But then I wasn’t one to amble along strange paths. Why did it show up for Nathan? Why did he specifically get a preview of this world?

Jamie scoffed. “You? You suspect you brought us here from another universe? I mean for a little while I was concerned about you but, seriously, I don’t buy that.” The librarian seemed to have lost all focus on her reading. She observed us with great interest.

Nathan dipped his head. “It doesn’t matter who did it. I’m ultimately responsible for all of this. I told you all about the place. I coerced the two of you to go. I didn’t turn back when something weird was happening. If I didn’t actually do it, then I was at least the one who allowed it to happen.”

I had to step in, “Excuse me, Nathan, but you’re wrong. We came on our own…”

Jamie gave me a look. I added, “Or least we didn’t fight it like we should’ve. I don’t know why we’re in this world. Admittedly, I’m not the most excited to get home. Although I don’t want… certain things to happen to us which might happen if we stay. I just… it feels captivating here. Like a day after a long shower clears the air. I want to breathe it in.”

The librarian was slowly nodding to herself and looking at something just beyond us. I dismissed the gesture from my thoughts and continued, “The point is we’re here now. We’re in an anime world. It’s a decent world…” The librarian jumped up, her hands clutching the piles of books around her, and asked, “What was that word?”

I repeated it for her, and asked, “Do you know it?”

She looked down but not at any book before her. She shook her head. “Nah. It’s nothing.” And then she hit herself and sat back down behind a few columns of literature, and lectured herself with, “No outbursts in the library, shishoko…” Since she asked me about the word ‘anime’, I asked her about the word she ended on just then. Was it her name?

She shook her head. “No… not really. It’s my profession mashed together with my name. Something I made up. Librarian girl. Ichikami Shioriko is my name though. Most people just call me Shiori. I guess it suits me, no matter how lame it sounds.” She paused then added, because of our confused faces, “Shiori means purple cloth… or purple-clothed beauty, in the case of my name. But it also means bookmark. Bookmark beauty. I mean I love books but… Eh, never mind. Sorry. Did you need anything else?”

We shook our heads and she buried hers in another book, although with less resolve than before. I tried to pick up on the thought I’d been working on. “It could be a lot worse, you know. And, if it gets that way, then we’ll deal with it then and there. We could yell at the sky and… bash the ground but we’d only wind up hurting ourselves. For now, it looks like there’s a path of breadcrumbs before us, and it leads back to Mecchen House.”

Jamie fumbled with what he wanted to say next until he finally admitted, “Alright… I really have no plan beyond ‘keep moving.’ At least it’s something though. I dearly want to get home, despite the fact I don’t have much waiting for me when we return. But we have even less here. No jobs. We have barely-valid IDs and a limited amount of cash. This is not a day at Disney World for me. This is ‘we’re lost’ and ‘what are you going to do to survive?’”

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Nathan fumbled a bit himself. “I know, and I will do anything I can to get us back home. I just don’t know what… Wait. I just had an idea.” Seeing as Nathan’s last idea had led us this far, I listened carefully to what he said next. Jamie even paused a moment.

He gestured to the phone bank over by the restrooms. “We know from TV that this world isn’t lots different from our own. We can live and breathe in it. It has some changes, but enough that it’s like one of those anime we’ve seen.”

He went on, “We have stuff that’s going on with us in this world which we can’t fully explain. We turned into this style of different being but we seem to be changing even more. Into girls maybe. And I was just thinking…”

Shiori plopped out of her chair with a sudden noise. I looked at Nathan, nudged him, and whispered, “Maybe keep that a little quiet…”

He blushed, and said a hush, “Sorry…” Well, what was done was done. Shiori vaulted over the info desk partition, which impressed me. She panted and looked between each of us. “You three are changing into girls?”

It was tough to say it, especially to a girl. It made me feel like I was intruding. I did offer, “Well, we’re not sure but something odd is happening to us. We’re getting softer and such. In many places. Too much to just be considered changing into ‘pretty boys.’ We’re not sure what to make of it.”

She put her finger to her chin. “I see. Then it’s not the same way I turned into a girl.”

As if I could imagine anything more shocking than seeing Ms. Ishida’s name on that screen. I couldn’t move ‘till Jamie coughed and said, “What?” Shiori, her arms held in front of her glittering gray top, said, “It’s tough to explain. I don’t talk about it much. Come on back to the desk.”

We followed her and sat inside the desk area. Her purse, a series of bulging, lavender brush streaks, sat to one side. She pulled out folding chairs for each of us. We set our bags nearby. I whispered to Nathan about his idea. He shook his head and whispered back, “Later is probably better. Besides, she might have just invalidated it.” That sure made me wonder.

She undid her ponytail and let her hair fall like quivering brush strokes dipping all around. She shut her eyes. “Okay. It’s like this. I can remember being a boy. I can’t remember when exactly. I just know one day I went to sleep as a boy, and the next I woke up as I am now. My memories of the whole thing are rather fuzzy. I can’t exactly tell you when it happened. I think it could’ve been a couple of months ago. But it could’ve been years. I remember being a girl all my life, and yet there’s this bubble of experience all jumbled up and preserved about being a guy. I can feel everything from it. I can’t remember what my name was then, and I can’t prove it isn’t just something in my head. I just have this sense that tells me it.” She paused a moment. The moment seemed to invite questions and it sure received them.

Jamie asked first. “You’re a boy?!?” His mouth lingered open.

She glared at him. “Not anymore, I assure you. Maybe I wasn’t. Maybe someone tricked me. Maybe something happened to me like what happened to you three? Maybe I fell into this world and it changed me?” She looked at Nathan. “You said you had a theory about what might’ve happened. I know this is presumptuous of me, but could you tell me too? It might help me figure this all out. I’m usually too afraid to talk to anyone about all this. No one has mentioned this kind of stuff before. I always figured it was just me.”

Nathan made himself a little smaller in his seat. “It’s really not worth bringing up. But I was just thinking since we left Brookville…”

She stopped him. “I’m sorry. What was that?”

My eyes perked up a little. Did she know that name? Was it possible we weren’t the only ones displaced from our world? Did something happen? But if a lot of people were brought here from our world, then why did this person seem to feel experiences from a long time back and turn into a girl instantly?

We explained the meaning to her. Something flashed in her eyes, which I inquired about. She rapped her fingers on her little brushmark of a nose but said nothing for several long moments. Eventually, she sighed and said, “Not familiar, but I just may not be remembering right. Please go on though.”

Nathan nodded and picked up with, “Since we left there, I’ve been thinking about how this area isn’t like where we lived and yet it kinda feels like it at times. Like if our town got moved to an anime place. A tinted sort of Japan.”

That name was familiar to Shiori. She nodded twice. Nathan lifted his hands. “Okay. So, isn’t it possible that there exists a Brookville back where we would live in this world? I mean space is time and location and such. If there’s some error in traveling it, then it would make sense we didn’t show up at the same time. But also it could be we wound up at a different place too. And it could even be instantaneous. Seamless. One moment in a pathway. Then next in the same pathway but in a whole different world. And… and… because it looked a lot like it and but was on a different continent, it could draw us there. Like a random crossing-over.”

It was a striking theory. A little jumbled, but not bad. Of course, it ignored a lot of whys, hows, and coincidences, but I couldn’t help but smile while listening to it. Nathan still looked a little embarrassed though.

Jamie looked lost. He said, “What are you getting at with all this?”

He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. My point was we don’t know anything about Brookville back in our area, if it exists here. I’m just supposing maybe… we already exist in this world. Back home. What if there’s an ‘us’ at our apartment on Rock Lane? Now if there’s an ‘us’ there and they’re boys, then maybe this universe can’t allow us to be their duplicates. Maybe it’s changing us to fit in? Making us into girls. So, maybe we could try calling our home numbers and see… if we get ourselves on the line.”

I had to admit it was a stretch, but why not try calling home, at least? Even if it was a number which is (I supposed) only valid in another dimension. Shiori mused on what Nathan said. “It’s not impossible but, I remember living around here. I just woke up as a girl. I don’t know. Maybe we came here different ways or I’m just a strange, book-loving girl who thinks she used to be a boy for some weird psychological reason. I mean for all the books I plow through, I kinda hope one of them will tell me something which will make sense of all this. I’m truly sorry I hadn’t read those books you three were looking for. Maybe it could’ve helped us both.”

I smiled at Shiori. “It’s cool. Besides, we know exactly where they are.”

Nathan chimed in, “May I ask you a few quick questions, Ms. Ichikami?”